The Vault Hunter’s Edition is your standard collector’s edition affair:

• Borderlands 2 game (duh)
• Authentic Marcus Kincaid Bobblehead
• 4 stickers
• Map of Pandora
• Digital comic book download
• Inside the Vault: The Art of Borderlands 2 hardcover book
• Bonus digital content

On the other hand, the Ultimate Loot Chest Edition (exclusive to EB Games in Australia) really brings the thunder. You’ll get all the stuff listed above, plus:

• Replica Borderlands loot chest (picture here, dog sold separately)
• Numbered certificate of authenticity
• Steelbook game case
• Creatures of Pandora wide format ID chart
• 4 lithograph postcards
• Field notes from Sir Hammerlock

I keep telling myself I’m not going to buy another ridiculously expensive edition of a game just to get stuff I won’t care about in a years time, but damn – look at that chest. I can probably fit all the stuff I got from other collector’s editions inside it for safe keeping.

While you’re figuring out how much you can save by eating vegemite sandwiches for lunch for the next 6 months, check out the Playstation Blog’s Q&A session with Matt Charles, Producer of Borderlands 2. He answers questions about framerates, character customisation options, voice chat, the Mechromancer DLC character, and a unique reward for Borderlands 1 players.

The new combined entity, which will continue to operate under the games.on.net brand, is positively bristling with features and resources. Backed by two massive ISP’s, a dedicated team of full-time staff and a pool of some of Australia’s best writers and journalists, the new games.on.net is a force to be reckoned with on the Australian gaming scene and will continue to deliver the latest news, reviews and interviews direct to our customers.

With over 8TB of files, trailers, mods and patches, a 10,000 player capacity over a dozen unique titles and 300,000 players visiting our servers each month, we’re not ashamed to boast that we’ve got the goods. As well as combined resources and staff, the communities for the two sites will also be merged to create a single forum with over 100,000 hardcore gamers. All existing games servers will remain in place, and the quota-free arrangements for both iiNet and Internode customers will continue unchanged.

To celebrate this massive milestone in Australian gaming, a new games.on.net website will be rolled out in July, marking the tenth anniversary of the service that began as the Internode Games Network. We hope you’ll join us there for the launch of what will now, officially, be the best gaming site in Australia. Stay tuned.

Head over to the 3FL forms to discuss the big news!

Upon hearing that GAME Australia has entered administration and may not honour some Diablo III pre-orders, Blizzard said “No, this simply will not do.”

Blizzard has announced via an official forum post that they can purchase the digital download version of Diablo III and receive full credit from Blizzard for their original pre-order with GAME:

Australian GAME customers with a valid preorder/prepurchase receipt dated before May 15, 2012 can do the following:

1. Purchase the digital version of Diablo III from http://www.diablo3.com now or anytime before May 21, 2012.

2. Download and start playing when the servers go live!

3. Submit your GAME Australia preorder/prepurchase receipt to us before June 30, 2012.

4. Receive a credit from Blizzard, for the amount you paid in advance to GAME Australia for Diablo III. This credit will be applied to the payment method used for the digital purchase.

Blizzard Entertainment: Champion of the People

PS Just 17 minutes to go until the Diablo III servers launch!

Once you have finished installing, you’ll then be able to download the initial launch day patch (under 100MB) so that you’re ready to go when the servers open at 3:00PM WST / 6:00 PM EST tomorrow.

While you’re installing, you should probably run through a few sets of the Diablo III exercises suggested by Nerdnightmare.com:

Sigon’s Press

Tancred’s Lift

Don’t forget to breathe properly.

Kate Warwick of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the company acting as administrators for GAME, said “Initially we will continue to trade all stores, operating these on as close to a ‘business as usual’ mode as possible whilst we get a clearer understanding of the current state of the business and actively pursue options to secure its future.”

This doesn’t affect most Aussie gamers, except for the ones unfortunate enough to have outstanding pre-orders for a significantly imminent game release, gift vouchers with GAME which is where the bad news comes in.

GAME have set up a FAQ on their website to explain the situation, but you can read on for a breakdown.

Pre-Orders
Game will honour all online pre-orders for Diablo III, but in-store pre-orders will depend on which store you ordered through. Some stores are receiving Diablo III stock, some stores aren’t receiving enough stock and some stores aren’t receiving any stock at all. Check with your store for details.

Gift Vouchers & Store Credit
Don’t worry guys, GAME will honour your existing gift vouchers and store credit. Except now the voucher/credit can only make up 25% of any purchase you make. So if you want to use your $15 gift voucher, you need to buy something worth at least $60 and kick in $45 of your own money.

The FAQ has a lot more info about lodging Proof of Debt forms and creditor meetings and such, so if you’re affected by all of this then it’s worth reading.

GAME Australia are also answering some queries via their Twitter account but are referring people to contact their local store or read the FAQ in most cases.

The 6 videos show each class of Mech in action, from the lightly armoured Scout class to the mighty Assault class behemoths, and a full 6 minutes looking at the MechLab where we’ll be customising and crafting our mechanised dogs of war.

Mechwarrior Online is set to be released later this year as a Free2play PC game, but no specific details about their business model have been released yet. I’m expecting news of their micro-transaction options for various Mech hats any day now.

Check out the overall preview video below, then read on for the rest.

In unrelated news, this post won’t continue until there are 3 million Twitter impressions of people talking about how handsome I am.

Just kidding, social media impression metrics are a load of bollocks.

The trailer is ripe with Redcoats being toma-hawked in the head, huge pitched battles with sweet musket action, snowy frontier landscapes, and a hint of Man vs. Bear action. Yes, we will be fighting that bear in AC3 no matter how much PETA whines about it. That alone is worth the price of the game.

Check out the trailer in all it’s gloriousness below.

TO: All Aperture employees
FROM: Cave Johnson

COMPANY MEMORANDUM

Cave Johnson here. Your boss. It’s come to my attention that some of you are concerned after receiving my all-staff memo yesterday (“You: Design Test Chambers or You’re Fired”). So to put your minds at ease, let me clarify: You are not mentally ill and you did read the memo just fine. It was real. You should be designing test chambers, right now and at all times, or by God I will fire you.

To celebrate the release, Portal 2 is on sale for $6.79 from Steam which is a bargain for how much time you’ll spend solving, and now creating, the ingenious puzzles it contains.

Check out the trailer for the new Perpetual Testing Initiative DLC below.

After weeks of developer diary videos and custom banner sigils, Blizzard has unveiled the final unlock of their build-up campaign for Diablo III - an animated short titled Wrath.

Wrath focuses on the Archangel Tyrael and his angel buddies, most of whom we’ve only heard of and never seen, and their war with the denizens of Hell. It seems the angels are going to play a bigger part in Diablo III than they have in the previous games, so Blizzard wants to make sure we’re all familiar with how they roll before things kick off on the 15th.

The animation is a collaboration between Blizzard, cartoon studio Titmouse Inc. (of Metalocalypse fame) and Peter Chung (creator of Æon Flux *nerd gush*) so you know it’s going to be packed with beautiful, stylised imagery and awesome action. Once you’ve watched it, check out the behind the scenes episode where they discuss the process that went into creating Diablo III: Wrath.

With a whole 7 days to go until the gates of Hell open and Diablo III is unleashed on the world, I’m open to anything that makes the time pass quicker. I’ve already chosen my class, booked time off work, run through a refresher course on Diablo’s lore and now it’s time to prepare for launch day.

Blizzard have just announced that they will be unlocking the Diablo III client install at 11:00PM WST on May 14th to allow everyone to install the client, download the initial patch and get everything ready for when the game goes live.

The article also explains the process for reserving your Battle.net username (if you haven’t already) and mentions that any congestion problems with the login server on launch day will be identified by the innocuous “Error 37″ description.

Clearly Blizzard is a company that’s had plenty of experience in dealing with the zerg nerd rush associated with launch days. Hopefully they have more plans in the works to make the next 7 days go as painlessly as possible.